Shown Here:Reported to Senate with amendment(s) (11/28/2016)

coordinate the development and implementation of federal government activities to improve the nation's ability to prepare, avoid, mitigate, respond to, and recover from potentially devastating impacts of space weather events; and

coordinate the activities of the National Space Weather Program members.

The National Science and Technology Council shall establish an interagency working group on space weather, including representatives of the federal agencies participating in the National Space Weather Program, and of other federal agencies, as appropriate.

In order to understand and respond to the adverse effects of space weather, such program shall leverage capabilities across participating federal agencies.

It is the sense of Congress that the interagency collaboration between NASA and NOAA on terrestrial weather observations provides:

an effective mechanism for improving weather and climate data collection while avoiding unnecessary duplication of capabilities across federal agencies, and

an agency collaboration model that could benefit space weather observations.

NASA and NOAA shall enter into at least one interagency agreement that provides for cooperation and collaboration in the development of space weather spacecraft, instruments, and technologies.

It is U.S. policy to establish and sustain a baseline capability for space weather observations.

The OSTP, in coordination with NOAA, NASA, NSF, and DOD, shall develop an integrated strategy for solar and solar wind observations beyond the lifetime of current assets that considers the provision of:

solar wind measurements and other measurements essential to space weather forecasting, and

solar and space weather measurements important for scientific purposes.

In developing such strategy, the OSTP shall consider small satellite options, hosted payloads, commercial options, international options, and prize authority.

In order to sustain current space-based observational capabilities, NASA shall:

in cooperation with the European Space Agency, maintain operations of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (SOHO/LASCO) for as long as it continues to deliver quality observations, and

NOAA, in coordination with DOD and NASA, shall develop options to build and deploy one or more instruments for near real-time coronal mass ejection imagery.

In developing such options, NOAA shall consider commercial solutions, prize authority, academic and international partnerships, microsatellites, ground-based instruments, and opportunities to deploy the instrument or instruments as a secondary payload on an upcoming planned launch.

In securing reliable secondary capability for near real-time coronal mass ejection imagery, NOAA shall make it a priority to achieve a cost-effective solution.

NOAA shall develop an operational contingency plan to provide continuous space weather forecasting in the event of a SOHO/LASCO failure.

Within 120 days of the enactment of this bill, NOAA shall brief Congress on the options for building and deploying the instrument or instruments and the operational contingency plan.

NOAA, in coordination with DOD, shall develop requirements and a plan for follow-on space-based observations for operational purposes.

The OSTP shall report to Congress on the integrated strategy, including the plans for follow-on space-based observations.

The NSF the Air Force, and where practicable in support of the Air Force, the Navy shall each:

maintain and improve, as necessary and advisable, ground-based observations of the sun; and

provide key data streams from such platforms for research and to support space weather model development,

develop experimental models for scientific purposes, and

support the transition of such models to operations where appropriate.

NOAA, the Air Force, and where practicable in support of the Air Force, the Navy, in conjunction with other relevant federal agencies, shall conduct a survey to identify and prioritize the needs of space weather forecast users, including space weather data and space weather forecast data needed to improve services and inform research priorities and technology needs.

NOAA, the Air Force, and where practicable in support of the Air Force, the Navy, shall:

make the survey's results publicly available; and

notify Congress of making those results available to the public.

As part of the program, the NSF, NASA, and DOD shall continue to carry out basic research activities on heliophysics, geospace science, and space weather and support competitive, merit-based, peer-reviewed proposals for research, modeling, and monitoring of space weather and its impacts, including science goals outlined in Solar and Space Physics Decadal surveys conducted by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

As part of such program, the NSF, NOAA, and NASA shall pursue multidisciplinary research in subjects that further our understanding of solar physics, space physics, and space weather.

It is the sense of Congress that NASA and the NSF should support competitively awarded Heliophysics Science Centers.